Brazil: Riot of angry townspeople

Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of dissatisfied went out on Istanbul Square, today-almost a million demonstrators filled the streets of San Paulo and other cities of Brazil. The reasons for the protest are different. But there is a similarity

The streets of Rio de Janeiro were filled with demonstrators after San Paulo

Both in Turkey and in Brazil, not marginals riot, but representatives of the middle class. As we say, "angry townspeople."

Mass demonstrations began in the country's largest megalopolis-San Paulo, and then spread to Rio de Janeiro and almost all large cities of the country. And if at the beginning of last week 200 thousand people participated in them, then by the end this number reached a million. In the capital of the country, Brazilia, the protesters tried to storm the Foreign Ministry building, but were stopped by reinforced police detachments. President Dilma Rousseff was forced to not only cancel his visit to Japan, but to the ringing of glass beating in neighboring buildings to leave the palace and move to a more reliable place. The reason for such a large -scale rebellion was originally cruel actions by the police, which suppressed the protest against the rise in public transport. But then something incomprehensible began at first glance: the inhabitants of the country in which football was erected to a nationwide cult began to publicly resent the “exorbitant cost” of the government to organize the 2014 mundial-the estimate has already exceeded $ 4.5 billion, and this is not the end. And besides, the Brazilians, the overwhelming majority of convinced Catholics, called for reducing allocations to prepare for the reception of the first Latin American pope - Francis.

The people on the streets of San Paulu burn the flags of the ruling party of workers
As the influential Spanish newspaper El Páis wrote, "Brazil, which until recently was envied all over the world, is experiencing a certain outbreak of schizophrenia."

It is not easy to explain it. Judge for yourself-the authorities of San Paulo raised the price for travel by city bus from 3 to 3.2 Real Madrid. In Russian money - from 44 to 47 rubles. This is comparable to the recent decision of the Moscow authorities to increase the fare for the subway from 28 to 30 rubles. In Belokamennaya, no one paid attention to such a “impudence”, and 250 thousand protesters went out onto San Paulo on the streets.

In Porto Alegri, as in many other cities, the police first dispersed the demonstrations

The world is full of paradoxes, and Brazilian is one of them. The Brazilians are envied by residents of the United States and countries of Western Europe: in the largest country of Latin America, almost zero unemployment. The socialist in their ideological orientation of the government of the former metallurgist Lula da Silva and the former “city partisan” Dilma Russuff* were able to carry out what was not able to make any left -wing government in the world. If, in the neighboring, richest Oil Oil, Orthodox socialism led to the sharpest shortage of most food and essential goods, then in Brazil a reasonable socio-economic model allowed to tear out 30 million people out of poverty and from the extreme poverty-more than 15 million four years ago, the American Time magazine put the Lula in the first place among the world Leaders, noting that Brazil in many respects became the country of the “First World”, while the United States rolls to the position of the “third world”.

In Brazilia, demonstrators occupied the square in front of Congress
So what happened? Suddenly it turned out that the growing Brazilian middle class wants more. Much more. He is no longer satisfied with the level of medical care in local hospitals, such as a hospital in the city of Belem, where 25 newborn has died over the past 15 days. The level of knowledge in schools does not satisfy it, due to which the organization of economic cooperation and development (OECD) put a 15-year-old Brazilian teenager in terms of education in the world in the world in a list from 65 countries-behind a teenager of Bulgarian, Mexican and Romanian. Brazilians are not satisfied with the tax burden in the country - 36 % of its GDP. And they act against excessive expenses on the mundial not because they want to make baseball sports in the country, but because they consider these costs economically unjustified.

Salvador. Tear gas is popular here as in Istanbul
The authorities have achieved a lot to transfer millions of citizens from the category of marginals into the ranks of the middle class. And now these citizens demanded more in their country. Their current order, people with increased income and more mature views on the world, is no longer satisfied.

At the beginning of the year, the RUSSEFF dilma rating was 75 %, and now he went down sharply. It turns out that the leader’s support level is the same volatile thing as the price of oil or the convertible currency course. Brazilian leaders seem to be aware of this. After the first day of protests, the authorities of the four largest cities in Brazil hastened to lower the fee for travel in public transport to the previous level. And the president of the country of Russeff ... praised the participants in protest actions, saying that they "raise fair issues" and with their actions "strengthen democracy in the country."

In the receiver, the demonstration ended with clashes with law enforcement agencies

But the Brazilians intend to continue to boo their leaders if nothing begins to change in the country. They will demand the eradication of corruption in the echelons of power and express their disagreement with the policy of the ruling party and with the administrative system of the country as a whole.

During past demonstrations of protest, one of the most common slogans was “the hosts here, not the rulers!” Something familiar, isn't it? But the "angry" Brazilian citizens seem to understand the meaning of this motto better than us.

Photos: Imago Sportfotodienst/East News, Reuters, Ap Photo